New aerial, now the stereo won't turn on!

Right, this is going to be a long post, I've been racking my brains for hours about this one, and I'm stuck.

I'm fitting a new stereo in a 2007 Fiat Ducato. I'm doing it as a favour for some guy, so I don't have access to the van. Only been at it tonight, and now gotta go back Saturday which wasn't intended. The radio signal is crap in this Ducato, although I think a lot of them are the same, to do with the co-ax cable. So he's bought a amplified aerial ( with the power cable and earth and all ).

I put the stereo in using the old aerial, worked fine. I soldered the aerial power cable to the switchable live ( although looking back I really should have done it to a ignition switchable ). There is 12V going to the switchable ( checked with a multimeter at the ISO block ), and it is grounding fine. Yet since I soldered this wire on, the stereo will not power up.

The switchable live cable seems to be very thin. I am sure that I have the right cable, because there is no voltage while the ignition is off, and 12V when it is on. But just to make 100%, if I remember rightly, it was the top left pin of the ISO block, if you're looking at the pins with the cables going away from you.

It's doing my head in. It's a one off job, for a guy I've not met before. He's not too pissed, he deals with electrics ( household ) all the time, and seen what's going on for himself, both of us are as confused as each other. This is probably the first time I've been properly stumped by something like this, please help me!

And please only post if you are certain you know what you're on about, don't need any more agro with this thing . Thanks in advance,

Re: New aerial, now the stereo won't turn on!

Originally Posted by carlnrtn

Right, this is going to be a long post, I've been racking my brains for hours about this one, and I'm stuck.

I'm fitting a new stereo in a 2007 Fiat Ducato. I'm doing it as a favour for some guy, so I don't have access to the van. Only been at it tonight, and now gotta go back Saturday which wasn't intended. The radio signal is crap in this Ducato, although I think a lot of them are the same, to do with the co-ax cable. So he's bought a amplified aerial ( with the power cable and earth and all ).

I put the stereo in using the old aerial, worked fine. I soldered the aerial power cable to the switchable live ( although looking back I really should have done it to a ignition switchable ). There is 12V going to the switchable ( checked with a multimeter at the ISO block ), and it is grounding fine. Yet since I soldered this wire on, the stereo will not power up.

The switchable live cable seems to be very thin. I am sure that I have the right cable, because there is no voltage while the ignition is off, and 12V when it is on. But just to make 100%, if I remember rightly, it was the top left pin of the ISO block, if you're looking at the pins with the cables going away from you.

It's doing my head in. It's a one off job, for a guy I've not met before. He's not too pissed, he deals with electrics ( household ) all the time, and seen what's going on for himself, both of us are as confused as each other. This is probably the first time I've been properly stumped by something like this, please help me!

And please only post if you are certain you know what you're on about, don't need any more agro with this thing . Thanks in advance,

Carl

Your post is VERY difficult to understand due to the subtle differences in European English and American English. From what I gather, aerial = antenna? Switchable live = Head unit remote turn on lead? ISO block = head unit wiring harness? If so, your problem is that you're trying to draw too much current through the remote turn on lead of the head unit. Do not use that for this. It is only able to supply a few milliamps of current and will prevent the head unit from coming on because of this. Wire the antenna amplifier to a relay. Then power the coil in the relay with the remote turn on lead.